Tips for Families

Make half your grains whole

Choose whole-grain foods, such as whole-wheat bread, brown rice and lowfat popcorn, more often.

Vary your veggies

Go dark green and orange with your vegetables – eat spinach, broccoli, carrots, and sweet potatoes.

Focus on fruits

Eat them at meals, and at snack time, too. Choose fresh, frozen, canned, or dried, and go easy on the fruit juice.

Get your calcium rich foods

To build strong bones serve lowfat and fat-free milk and other milk products several times a day.

Go lean with protein

Eat lean or lowfat meat, chicken, turkey, and fish. Also, change your tune with more dry beans and peas. Add chick peas, nuts, or seeds to a salad; pinto beans to a burrito; or kidney beans to soup.

Change your oil

We all need oil. Get yours from fish, nuts, and liquid oils such as corn, soybean, canola, and olive oil.

Don’t sugarcoat it

Choose foods and beverages that do not have sugar and caloric sweeteners as one of the first ingredients. Added sugars contribute calories with few, if any, nutrients.

Exercise

Set a good example

Be active and get your family to join you. Have fun together. Play with the kids or pets. Go for a walk, tumble in the leaves, or play catch.

Take the President’s Challenge

as a familyTrack your individual physical activities together and earn awards for an active lifestyle at www.presidentschallenge,org

Establish a routine

Set aside time each day as activity time – walk, jog, skate, cycle, or swim. Adults need at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week; children 60 minutes everyday or most days.

Have an activity party

Make the next birthday party centered around physical activity. Try backyard Olympics, or relay races. Have a bowling or skating party.

Set up a home gym

Use household items, such as canned foods, as weights. Stairs can substitute for stair machines.

Move it!

Instead of sitting through TV commercials, get up and move. When you talk on the phone, lift weights or walk around. Remember to limit TV watching and computer time.

Give activity gifts

Give gifts that encourage physical activity – active games or sporting equipment.

Thank you